Despite Gov. Cuomo’s assurances that he’s in touch with CSEA President Danny Donohue and PEF’s Ken Brynien about finding savings to fend off up to 9,800 state worker layoffs, neither labor leader sounds cheered by the budget proposal.

From Donohue:

“There is nothing fair nor shared in the proposed state budget. Slashing aid to our communities, to our hospitals and nursing homes, to our schools and disproportionate cuts in state operations does not represent any new direction. It will mean fewer people on the job maintaining our roads, fewer people keeping our water clean, fewer people making our neighborhoods safer, fewer people providing care to our most vulnerable citizens, fewer people driving our children to school and helping New Yorkers lead healthier lives.

“CSEA has repeatedly said that we are prepared to do our part and work with the administration for a better New York.

“We are not willing to see the necessary services that CSEA members provide to people in every community in the state used as a bargaining chip to maintain tax breaks for millionaires.”

From Brynien:

The governor continues to claim that pain will be shared in his budget.

The State Executive Budget proposal would cripple public services without asking any sacrifice from businesses, corporations and the millionaires and billionaires responsible for the economic crisis.

This Executive Budget calls for funding cuts including as many as 9,800 layoffs and more than 1,600 in attrition to reduce the work force by more than 11,500 jobs. This in addition to the more than 11,000 jobs already cut since the fiscal crisis began. This is supposed to be about shared sacrifice, yet this proposal provides for a tax cut of nearly 28 percent for the wealthiest New Yorkers at a time when we can least afford it.

Unfortunately when the governor says everyone must share in the pain, he means the workers who provide vital services and the state’s citizens who rely on them, rather than those responsible for the collapse of the state and national economy.

We will work with the governor to do our part to help during this fiscal crisis. We have solutions that will help close the budget gap without gutting state services.

We are willing to sacrifice, but we will not be sacrificed.

From NYSUT:

New York State United Teachers today said the proposed executive budget is a “recipe for a devastating impact on public schools and higher education” and is especially troubling in light of the irresponsible tax cap proposed by the governor and passed by the Senate.

“These proposed cuts are significant and, if enacted, would impact the classroom both directly and indirectly,” said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi. “I can’t say that we share the executive’s belief that a cut in state aid this significant — coming on top of a $1.9 billion decrease over the previous two years — can be absorbed without teacher layoffs and the loss of other important education professionals.”

“Couple all this with a devastating tax cap bill passed by the Senate and we have a potential recipe for a devastating impact in many districts — especially low-wealth districts,” he said.

“Clearly, we agree that greater administrative and management efficiencies, the use of district reserve funds and redirecting federal dollars should be looked at very carefully and implemented before layoffs are considered,” Iannuzzi said. “But, many of these decisions must be local decisions, and determined district by district.”

Iannuzzi also noted that large cities outside New York City — such as Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany — would be hit particularly hard by the budget proposal, especially when mandated local payments to charter schools are factored in.

The NYSUT president also expressed great concern about the proposed impact on the State University, City University and the state’s vital network of community colleges. “The systemic dismantling of state support for higher education leaves almost no room to absorb these cuts,” Iannuzzi added.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta noted that NYSUT is committed to working with legislative leaders and the governor toward a responsible compromise that looks at spending and resources. “This is not the way to start. Our role now is to work with the Legislature to ensure the state budget it adopts meets the governor’s vision of turning around the state’s economy, while still protecting education, our SUNY hospitals, libraries and other vital services that students and working New Yorkers count on,” Pallotta said.

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